I think it is a stretch to call Bruce anti-American. After all he did play at president Obama's inaguation in 2008 and had a good relationship to president Obama.

Obama was one of the most anti-American US presidents in history. He was brought up under the tutelage of Reverend Jeremy "God Damn America" Wright, and his entire agenda was based on the premise that America was an illegitimate country that had to be cut down to size because we didn't "deserve" our prosperity or super-power status. Remember how one of his first acts as president was to run around the world to grovel at the feet of foreign leaders, begging their forgiveness for America's "arrogance"? It was rather shameful.

There's nothing un-American about defending our nation's borders from those who would do us harm, and at the moment, there's no good way to tell the difference between a legitimate refugee and a terrorist. You should look into the history of American immigration some time. We used to be extremely selective about who we would let in with the idea that those from cultures that could most easily integrate were given a preference over others. This was all turned on its head sometime in the 1960's when Senator Ted Kennedy introduced a bill the removed long-standing restrictions from our immigration laws, and since then, America's culture has become increasingly fragmented to the point that American patriotism is frowned upon and viewed as exclusionary and bigoted. It's a rather sad state of affairs.

Look, Germany took a lot of refugees. And whenever a lot of people are at the same place, you will find good people and bad people as well. So of course you will find examples of refugees who did bad things. But comparing to the number of people, everything is fine here in Germany.

I have to say that laws are of course a "measuring tape" for me. But on the other side, I'm a christian and so there is a higher law for me. And thats also a reason for me, to treat refugees with love and respect. I think, this is the way God wants me to act.

By the way - and this is not directed to you Brent - sometimes I would like to see members of the zone act, talk and handle with more love to each other. We are christians, so non-christians should see a difference.

The most significant fact about what has been going on in Germany and Sweden is the fact that hundreds of thousands of people, each one being equally as important as anyone reading this, are alive and living in a situation in which they can hope for a better future and in which their basic needs are covered.

These countries should recieve praise and not recieve criticism for what they have been doing. Let me ask anyone who disagrees: where would you rather see those refugees and migrants? In Syria living in constant fear, in much poorer countries who have already taken significantly more though they do not have the ability to provide that much help? The children are freezing and they are hungry. Is that what would have been the better situation? Of couse they could also very likely have died. I don't suspect anyone in here would wish for that. In much of the covering of the situation it is completely forgotten that these real human beings would either suffer a lot or die if it was not for Germany and Sweden. This is the most important part of that story. Period. By only focusing on other parts of that story the most important and significant fact is forgotten.

Now, it is true that there are bad people everywhere. Thus both in Germany and Sweden extremists have been burning refugee homes and gone to extreme efforts to scare refugees. Recently a bunch of Swedish heartless extremist had planned an attack. A nunmber of children were to arrive without their parents since their parents were either killed or lost. The Swedish extremists had the intention to beat these childen as soon as they arrived. Fortunately the police had intelligence on their plannings so they were arrested before they had the chance to do what they had heartlesly planned to do.

Those people, all those racists, extremists, heartless people should be held accountable. Why are so many people so much more concerned about pointing fingers at the governments and everyone else who is trying to help people in need? The extremists bear a huge responsibility because they create a lot of fear, make refugees feel unwelcome and thus makes it very hard to integrate the refugees. Of course there are also extremists among the refugees. I think Markus had some very important points in that regard. Among such a large number of people there are bound to be some with bad, even very bad intentions. But the fingers should defnitely also point to grown up men who are planning to beat children who have lost their parents. Dimensions seem to have gone completely lost. It seems there is a huge focus on "what is best for me and my country". In that regard people forget the extremists among ourselves and the innocent among the others.

And again people some people want to hold the governments responsible. Responsible for what? For not letting hundreds of thousands of people die or live in extremely bad conditions. For not saying "you are a muslim and all muslims are suspicios go somewhere else (or die)"?. We should hold the terrorist responsible, and we should hold extremists among ourselves responsible. And Europe (apart from Sweden and Germany) and the USA should hold itself responisble for not helping Sweden, Germany or some very poor countries when they did what we were all supposed to do.

It is of course true that there are tensions in both Sweden and Germany. And all the criminals should be held accountable. But where would you rather see all the rest?

Yesterday Shell talked about what would happen if the situation was reversed. If you were a refugee you would easily understand why Sweden and Germany should be proud. Today Mountain Man asked whether principles that were directed towards the indivual should be the principles behind governmental politics. That is a very difficult discussion. I recognise the fact that no country can take all refugees. But I do not believe in the "all or nothing" attitude (not saying Mountain Man has that attitude). And I see no point in having one set of moral guidelines when acting towards other individuals and a completely different when voting or doing politics. Can you teach the example of the good Samaritan in church and then in other contexts go for politics in which people in tremendous need will not be helped? Again I recognise that there is a tension and that politics is not the church, and that politics is very complicated. However I see no need for not letting good moral principle be the base of politics. And currently I completely fail to see that Europeans of Americans (with very few exections) are so poor that they should not help those who are so very much poorer.

As a German I'm very thankful for *a lot* things American people did for my country. Seriously! On the other hand, as a German, I know what can happen, when people tend to "love" their country "too much". Or be "proud of their country". Whatever this is.
This "Germany first" , put my country into one of biggest tragedies ever and as I like the US, I deeply hope, that everything will work out good for the US. I can't say "love the US", as - to quote one former German president: I do not love my country, I love my wife.

Never forget: First, we are Christians! And not American, German, Danish, or wherever God placed us for birth.
We should thank God for every Muslim, who comes to us, as we don't have go the whole way to their country and tell them the good news. The news of God love.

BTW, Dan do you know that Breitbart is publishing "news", which were revealed as untruth?

Breitbart is no worse than CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, New York times,Huffington Post or any of the other fake news pushers. I am sick of people think the US is some free for all country, savior of the world. The US needs to be left alone and on the same token, the US needs to stay out of the middle east.

I think this one is important. The Swedish governtment has provided some facts on migration. I did post it once before. If that was deleted on purpose let me know. There is no intention on my side to provoke or cause disorder. I think this the topic is very relevant and of great significance. And it relates to stuff in this thread.